Empires of Earth (rewrite)
by Voiddragon11
Summary: (AU with slight War of the worlds crossover.) In the year 1896 an Alien race invades Earth but are defeated not by man, but by bacteria. The Empires of Earth spread into the stars, but it has not been easy, wars with aliens have left humanity mistrustful. In the year 2183, an ancient piece of alien technology is discovered on a joint Anglo-American colony...
1. Chapter 1

I do not own the Mass effect franchise this a non-profit piece of fiction etc etc.

This is going to be an extensive rewrite of my earlier Mass effect story.

(If anybody would be willing to beta I would appreciate that a lot.)

Prologue: The beginning.

British Raj, Calcutta, July 1896.

Major Albert Shepard sat at his writing desk in Fort William, which was placed near a window overlooking the city of Calcutta. Calcutta was the beating heart of the Raj, the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. Shepard was currently writing to his wife who was on a hunting trip with her father in South Africa, the letter was just asking if all was well and letting her know how he was. As he finished the last sentence of the letter he once again stopped to think of how lucky he was to have had a woman like Jessica fall in love with him. He couldn't wait for the two of them to be back together, since he had been in India for months now.

Once he was done with the letter he took off his khaki officer's jacket, leaned back in his chair, and picked up the most recent edition of the 'Calcutta journal' dated September 12th 1896. The Journal was a newspaper that was mostly distributed to the British citizens of the city. The papers headline read 'Bright Flashes of light observed on Martian surface and strange phenomenon in Skies over Asia.' This story captured Shepard's interest, having studied astronomy as a child, due to his father being in the navy. Even now Shepard could navigate by the stars, and still all these years later he still held a passion for all things that involved the heavens. As he read through the article he learned that an observatory in England had first spotted the flashes of light on the Martian surface. Shepard smirked, and looked over to the telescope his father had brought him for his birthday last year.

Deciding to see if he could see Mars for himself he set the telescope up, and opened the shutters that covered the window, and turned off the lamp in his room so the light wouldn't mess with his observations of the Red Planet. As he leaned down and put his eye to the eye piece, he caught the briefest glimpse of a bright object streak by. He had no time to ponder what the object could be however as in that moment a tremendous explosion erupted in the center of Calcutta.

The resulting shockwave shook the building and sent him sprawling to the floor on his back. He sat up and immediately noticed his telescopes eye piece had shattered, "bloody Hell, just my luck," he cursed. It was at that moment he noticed screams and shouting in the distance. He mentally slapped himself. There had just been a massive explosion in the middle of the city and he, an Officer of her majesty's army, was worrying about his telescope. Maybe the knock he'd received on his head had done more damage than he realized. Now that Shepard thought about it, there was a dull throbbing at the back of his skull. Shepard put his hand on the back of his head and upon withdrawing was alarmed at the blood covering it.

As Shepard stood up and dusted himself off he wondered what the explosion could have been. '_Could it have been a meteor perhaps_?' he thought. Regardless of what it was he needed to go gather the men, the said task was made all the more pressing by the continuing screaming and shouting. He picked up his jacket that he had put on the edge of his chair which was now laying on the floor. He went to leave his room and just as he reached the door there was a loud knock on the door, and upon opening his door he was greeted by the sight of Captain Paul Dolton. The Captain straightened up and saluted Shepard, Shepard returned the salute. "Good timing Captain I was just coming to find you." The Captain had a large cut on his forehead; he had most likely been injured by the shockwave just as Shepard had.

Dolton said shakily, "Sir there seems to have been an explosion in the city center."

"I am aware of that Dolton I think it may have been a meteor, but there can be time for talking later. For now we need to get over there and help as best we can, send a message to the Governor and-"

"Sir look!" Dolton had turned pale and was pointing behind Shepard.

"Why, what is…" Shepard stopped mid-sentence, the sight that greeted him filled him with terror. Through the window he could see about half a mile away, at the point of the earlier explosion emerging from the smoke, were three monstrous machines that looked like a bunch of boilers suspended on three stilts. From the sides each of the Tripods uncurled two metallic appendages with what Shepard could only describe as resembling lamps on the end. The lamps on the end of the appendages shot out a brief flash of light. It did this once, twice, then three times and all three tripods started firing these beams of light almost bright as the sun.

Shepard was still in shock but a small part of his brain was pondering why the machines were firing beams of light, it was then he realized with horror that it was not mere light as everything the beams touched seemed to disappear. No explosions, no fires, or anything else. The buildings the beam touched simply disintegrated and every time the beams were fired they lit up the city for a brief instant, and caused the screaming to increase. "Captain…gather the battalion, and send a rider to the Colonel and the Viceroy. We are going to need help", Shepard's voice was shaking more then he meant it to.

"Yes…Yes sir," Dolton replied.

Just as the Captain turned to leave Shepard said, "Oh and Dolton get me a bandage would you?" The Captain nodded and hurried off. Shepard walked back into his room and picked up the chair that was lying on the floor and slumped down on to it. He looked out of the window and saw the three tripods striding throughout the city center firing those dastardly beams.

**Joint Anglo-French Naval task force, Mediterranean sea, off the coast of Port Said, September 12 1907.**

Michel Hackett was having a pleasant dream about being back home in his native in Belfast, but his dreaming was interrupted by a sudden sharp pain on his nose. He shot up and instantly regretted it as he hit his head on the bunk above him.

"Ow ow, for the love of God!" Michel shouted as he rubbed his head, he looked over as he heard loud chuckling coming from the bunk to his left.

"Ha, you alright there Ulster boy? I see you're awake at least." Alfred Fontaine the French Canadian machine gunner in Michel's squad said while sitting on his bunk. Alfred was a large man standing at around 6'5 and with the bulk to match up his size; he could probably snap Michel in half if he wanted to.

Michel simply scowled at the smirking Canadian, "did you hit my nose?"

Alfred nodded, "I figured I couldn't leave you sleeping, after all we'll be hitting Port Said in ten minutes so I advise you get ready, and quickly. We don't want the colour sergeant eating you alive after all. Anyway, I'll leave you with your thoughts," and with that Alfred left the cabin. While he was getting changed into his khaki combat uniform he could hear the distant boom of artillery, and it sounded like there was a lot of it.

Ten minutes later once Michel had grabbed all his gear, he along with the rest of the Royal Marines aboard the transport ship RFA Lady of the sea, were all on the deck waiting to embark the landing craft, and as a result the deck was absolutely packed, there was hardly room to breathe. In the years since the end of the Martian invasion the Royal navy had become extremely efficient at naval landings due to the sheer amount of fighting that had taken place. Many of the far flung colonies of the British Empire had nationalist elements, and these rebel scum had taken the opportunity while the Empire was engulfed in chaos to try and throw off British rule, there had been the communist uprising in Aden, the Third Boer war, and of course the second great Indian rebellion. Of course these foolish attempts met with failure in the end.

Michel looked to the starboard side of the Lady of the see to behold the sight of one of the battleship HMS Albion. The Albion was the first naval vessel to be put to sea that used some of one the reversed engineered Martian electronics, apparently the people on the ship could instantly communicate with the Admiralty back in London. The Albion's main guns also used the new wonder material that the tripods had been using the so called element zero. Martian technology was being proven to be remarkably easy to understand, and while humanity still had a ways to go reverse engineering all of it, they were well on their way.

Michel was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of a high pitched whistle and shouting as the section and platoon commanders start ordering their men into the boats. Michel gripped his Enfield rifle in a death grip, and tightened the strap of his brodie helmet said a quick prayer, and quickly jumped into the landing craft with the rest of the platoon. He felt like a sardine due to how cramped the landing craft was. As he was looking around he caught a glimpse of Alfred standing a few meters in front of him, Michel gave him a nervous smile and received one in return.

The pre battle jitters were now starting to affect Michel but he didn't let them get to him, they had been training for this assault for months, ever since the French and British had both agreed the Ottoman Empire could not remain in possession of the Suez Canal. The damn Turks had gone on to conquer most of the Middle East over the course of the last few years, and then went on to strike the Egyptian protectorate. The Ottoman Empire had been spared the worst of the Martian assault with only three cylinders landing within their territory, and with the great European powers in disarray the Ottoman Empire rose in power dramatically, and in no small part due to the large deposit of element zero that had been discovered under Anatolia. Anatolia was one of the few places in the world that possessed element zero despots.*

Michel felt a thump as the landing craft was lowered into the water and started along with the hundred or so other landing craft, towards Port Said. Even from this far away Michel could see great pillars of smoke rising up from the city as the Anglo-French bombardment continued.

Anyway the Ottomans began to get too big for their boots so to speak and struck at British controlled Egypt, they had been helped from the inside as they funded various Egyptian rebels that helped their conquest. So the Egyptian people traded British puppet rulers for Ottomans rulers, not the best trade off in Michel's opinion. Not only did the Ottoman conquests incur the wrath of Britain, but the rest of Europe as well. The French were not happy with a hostile Islamic power possessing the canal, and the other European nations weren't happy with their oil companies being thrown out of the Middle East by the new fiercely nationalistic Ottoman government.

Michel looked up as he heard the distinctive whooshing of one of the prototype flying machines that had been deployed to this area. They were large clunky things that don't look to be capable of flight, but they were able to due to the unique properties of element zero that powered their engines. There were only twenty or so of them in the Royal air corps currently and they were only lightly armed with a single heat ray as well as two Vickers machine guns, but they were extremely fast.

Looking towards the front of the landing craft Michel felt the fear starting to creep in, this wasn't the first time he had seen combat, Hell it wasn't even his first amphibious assault. Still…he had his occasions when he got as scarred as the fresh recruit.

"Sixty seconds! God be with you, and remember fight for King and country!"

The helms men of the landing craft shouted out at the top of his lungs. Michel caught the eyes of his commanding officer first lieutenant Owens, Owens was seemed to be fiddling with a silver pocket watch. Turning away from Owens to face the front of the craft, and went over the assault plan in his head once more. The beach had pretty much been cleared of Ottoman forces due to the very effective use of the eezo propelled shells, but once the beach was cleared they would advance into the city under the cover of air and sea power, and retake the canal. At the same time the British were assaulting Suez the French would attack Ottoman Libya from their bases in Tunisia, and the Russian along with the Balkan league were taking the chance to kick the Ottomans out of Europe once and for all.

"Ten seconds, G-"

The Helms men shouted but were cut off as a shell whizzed right over head the landing craft. So all the Ottomans on the shore weren't dead after all…A pity. So with one last prayer Michel readied himself for battle.

**Timeline.**

1895 – Morning war begins (Geth rebellion).

5-25 July 1896 - Martian invasion of Earth. Earth is devastated with casualties in the tens of millions. Martians die due to no resistance to Earth bacteria.

Morning war ends, and the Geth are victorious, Quarians are driven from Rannoch.

1897 (The dark year) - Chaos rules as most nations are in complete disarray, and international trade all but stops. Economy all but collapses at an international level. European colonial possession function as near independent entities for a time.

1898 – Humanity begins the long process to recovery as international trade is reestablished, and life begins to approach a sense of normalcy although nothing compared to pre-invasion life. With the majority of the British Royal family's death during the attack on London a little known general with relation to the Royal family named Arthur assumes the throne, and sets out reforming Victoria's Empire.

August 12th 1898 – The ailing Qing Empire begins to collapse due to civil war.

September 12 1898 to January 3rd 1899 – Sino-Russian war. The Russian Empire takes advantage of the other great powers looking elsewhere, and attacks Qing China. After the fairly quick four month long war Qing yields and Manchuria becomes a Russian protectorate. As a result of this the Greater Korean Empire asks for Japanese protection.

June 1899 –A team at Oxford university studying the salvaged Martian cylinders, and discover something amazing. Element zero, a wonder material that, when subjected to an electrical current, releases so called dark energy which can be manipulated into a mass effect field, raising or lowering the mass of all objects within that field. This kick starts a revolution in the sciences.

1900 – Ottoman annexation of the Emirate of Jabal Shammar. Mexico collapses; The United States now starting to recover from the Martian invasion sends troops into Mexico effectively making it an American protectorate. South America begins to collapse into lawlessness, but Spanish and Portuguese troops help the governments of their ailing former colonies to keep order.

February 19th 1901 – The Royal Navy launches the most powerful warship the world has ever seen HMS Dreadnaught, using the most cutting edge advances in technology it is meant to ensure British dominance of the seas, a naval arms race ensures.

The British government sets out the beginnings of an idea known as the Imperial federation, an idea meant to unite the Empire under a single banner.

December 1902 – Russia invades Afghanistan stating tribal raids as the excuse. Britain is enraged and begins massing troops in India, including the new inventions of the tank and the German supplied biped walkers.

March 1903 – British influence in China is curbed by the growing influence of Russia, and the growing naval arms race increases tension. All-out war seems likely. Several Martian cylinders land in Persia. The world panics fearing a second invasion, and united by fear the great powers move to counter the Maritain landing in Persia.

April 1903- Over a million men from the armies of the British Raj, France, Russia and the Ottoman Empire move to fight the Martians. Over the month of April at least a ninety thousand men die to the loss of twenty tripods and accompanying flying machines. The Technology is divided amongst the victors and the fear of more invasions keep conflict between the powers in check for now.

December 1903 – In response to the fears of further Martian invasions the British Empire sign the Imperial unification treaty, all the colonies of the Empire will now have a say in an Imperial parliament.

Spain and Portugal's Royal families intermarry and various treaties of friendship and corporation are singed between the two.

1904 – The Third Boer war. After the seizer of the Boer republics several years earlier the dominion of South Africa erupts into civil war due to the passing of the passing of the Imperial unification treaty.

Japan also annexes Korea into the Japanese Empire, relations between the Japanese Empire and Russia deteriorate.

1905 – The third Boer war rages on.

Due to increased Spanish and Portuguese involvement in the Americas, the United States attempts to curb their influence. However a coalition of European nations namely France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy back the Iberians, because of fears of growing American power. The United States back down but increases the size of its military and navy.

1906- Third Boer war ends with British victory. The Union of South Africa is created, and the Afrikaans become an oppressed minority, they are forced to learn English and British traditions (much like the treatment of the Welsh last century). The second great rebellion takes place in India, but is swiftly put down by far superior British technology.

Frances moves to attempt to unite it's own Empire the way the British have.

July 1907- Spain and its former colonies in South America increase their close links by signing several treaties chief among them is a free trade agreement.

September 1907 – Ottoman invasion of Egypt…..

Codex entry: The Invasion of Earth.

Humanity's first contact with an extra-terrestrial species occurred in 1896. At this time Humanity was a pre-space flight species and was in an industrial state of civilization that had yet to have any contact with an alien race. Unfortunately for Humanity first contact was not a smooth process. The alien race which had no proper name at the time was referred to as the Martians by the countries of Earth. They deployed by way of cylinders that for the most part landed in the northern hemisphere in the industrialized nations, but there were alien forces that landed in the British Raj, Qing China and South America. Interestingly enough the Martians also landed around the few deposits of element zero on Earth. The industrial era militaries of Earth were powerless to resist the invaders who operated huge multi story machines dubbed "Tripods" that used mass effect shielding. The only weapons that humanity could use to harm the invaders were the guns of the ocean going battleships that the Navies of Earth used at the time. Some famous examples that have gone down in history are the British ships H.M.S Thunderchild and the U.S.S Texas.

Earth was saved only due to the fact that the Martians had not prepared an adequate defense against Earth's bacteria and viruses, and thus the invaders fell not to man or his weapons but microscopic organisms of disease. After the war, and even today, there is much debate about why an advanced species would be so careless. Some theories put forward are that they were desperate and had no time to test counter measures. The death toll was immense, with estimates putting the final total at around thirty million worldwide (note this does not include the famines resulting from loss of infrastructure). In the years after the Martian invasion, the race was on to secure the most alien technology. Of course, this race for technology took a new turn with the Tunguska event of 1908…

There will be more Mass effect related stuff next chapter I am simply setting the scene here.

So please tell me what you think, and yes I know there are most likely grammar errors, but hey not bad for someone who is technically dyslexic.


	2. Tunguska

Bloody hell only one chapter, and already I've got seventy two followers plus 45 favourites.

Please review, and once again I really need a beta if anybody would be willing that would be great.

**Tunguska.**

**Russian Empire, Crimea, Livadia palace, 2:00 am, 30 June 1908.**

Tsar Nicholas woke up in a cold sweat, he had dreamt about the Martian invasion again, and yet again it had interrupted his night's sleep. As he wiped the sweat from his brow more of the dream came back to him. He had been standing in the middle of St Petersburg as tripods strode throughout the city, but he had been unable to move, and was helpless to do anything as an alien war machine fired upon Saint Isaacs Cathedral.

Nicholas removed his covers and sat up in bed. He had been in St Petersburg at the time of the Martian invasion he, and his family barely escaped with their lives. The image of St Isaacs Cathedral burning as a tripod strode through the wreckage had stayed with him ever since. Seeing the aftermath of the Martian attack on St Petersburg had changed Nicholas. After seeing the sheer amount of death and destruction inflicted upon the Russian people (his people) first hand, he had vowed to make sure nothing like that would ever happen again, and thus he had set out to make Russia the greatest nation on Earth. He had reformed the army and industry along more modern lines; no more would Russia be an archaic state.

If only his wife had lived to see it, but alas she had died giving birth to his youngest daughter Anastasia. Nether the less he was thankful for what he had, his daughters were in good health, and Russia was doing better than ever, but good God did he miss his wife.

His thoughts were disturbed by a light knock at the bedroom door. Perplexed he looked at the clock it was two a.m., who could be knocking at this hour? He quickly got out of bed and threw on a green nightgown over his pyjamas, and headed to the door.

As soon as he had touched the door handle the door burst open, and his daughter Maria rushed in, and wrapped her arms around her father's waist. Nicholas was surprised at first and looked down into his daughter's large blue eyes, but was saddened to see there were tears streaking down them.

Nicholas was about to speak when one of his daughters governess appeared in the door way.

"I'm sorry your highness she had a bad dream, I'll take her back to bed. Come on Maria."

The governess reached out and put a hand on Maria's shoulder, but the young girl simply hugged her father tighter.

"No I want to stay with Papa!"

The governess was about to try again but Nicholas simply raised his hand, and spoke. "It's all right Margaret. You get yourself back to bed, and I'll deal with Maria."

"If you are sure your highness, I shall take my leave," and with that the governess curtsied and walked back down the corridor leaving the Tsar, and his daughter alone.

Nicholas gently unhooked his daughters arms from unground his waist. His daughter was wearing a white nightgown, and was around her neck was a silver necklace that he had brought her for her fifth birthday. Nicholas knelt down on one knee so he was eye level with her, and gently wiped a tear away from her cheek.

"There, there come on now." He hugged her tightly and she returned the embrace and her crying seemed to subside. "What's the matter?"

Maria tried to get her breathing under control before answering. "I…I had a dream where a…A Martian machine had killed you papa, and I saw a Martian in the window."

She seemed to be to burst into tears again. Nicholas cursed under his breath he knew he shouldn't have shown those pictures of the Martians to his daughters, and especially not to Maria she had always been easily frightened.

The Tsar smiled and his daughter and patted her head as he spoke. "I'm fine darling, and there are no Martians in your room. We are protected by loads of soldiers so there is no need to fret my dear."

Maria smiled at the Tsars words before replying. "You promise there are no aliens in my room?"

"I promise."

"Well…Can…Can I stay with you tonight papa?"

The Tsar smiled and nodded. "You have just turned nine after all so you're a big girl now…But just this once I'll let you okay?"

Maria smiled and hugged her father before running into his room and jumping onto his bed. The Tsar smiled, and had just closed the door when a heavy knocking was heard. Smiling at his daughter he returned to answer the door, but was surprised to see Konstantin Bagrov his minister for war surrounded by four grim looking generals.

"Konstantin what is the meaning of this? It's two in the morning."

Konstantin bowed before speaking. "Forgive me your highness but there is a very serious situation which requires your urgent attention."

"Why what is it?"

Konstantin sighed, and spoke in an almost hushed whisper. "We believe another Martian attack is imminent. Please come with us to Sevastopol, the situation will be explained in full there your Highness."

Nicholas was speechless for the briefest moment, but a steely determination quickly gripped him. He needed to see to the Empires defence.

"Very well Konstantin let me just get dressed and see to my daughter, and we shall leave immediately."

Konstantin nodded. "We have an aircraft waiting outside, I shall await you there your highness," and with that Konstantin and the other generals headed off down the corridor leaving the Tsar and his daughter alone.

Nicholas turned to his daughter, and sighed deeply. He would have to leave her, which he hated doing, ever since his wife had died he had taken a far more active role in the raising of his children.

Maria's eyes had widened in alarm, and she seemed to be shaking. "Papa do you have to go?"

"I'm afraid I do darling, but don't worry daddy will be back soon."

"You promise?"

Nicholas smiled, and said "I promise."

Maria returned the smiled and got up from the bed, she started walking towards him. "Okay then papa I'll go back to my room."

Nicholas leaned down and hugged his daughter. "Ask one of the soldiers to stand outside your room if you're scared."

Maria nodded, pulled back from the embrace then walked down the corridor towards her room leaving Nicholas alone.

Five minutes later Nicholas had quickly got changed into a simple green military uniform, and trench coat. Once he was fully dressed he quickly headed out of his room, and headed towards the front of the palace. The corridors of Livadia were awash with grand paintings of past Emperors and Russian glories, this collection included a few portraits of him and his family.

As he approached the front of the palace he could hear a loud whooshing sound that was akin to being caught in a very strong wind. As he walked through the reception room of the palace there were at least a dozen soldiers standing guard, he nodded as he passed and they returned it with a salute. As he approached one of the palace doors one of the guards held it open for him, and Nicholas beheld the source of the whooshing noise, it was a large flying machine.

The aircraft was bulky and painted green with the two headed Russian Imperial eagle painted on the side. It had two large wings like a metal bird, but on the end of both of the wings was a large cylinder with a large spinning propeller on the top facing up wards, Nicholas believed this was called a helicopter.

As Nicholas stepped out of the palace the large ramp on the back of the aircraft descended revealing the cargo hold of the aircraft. Konstantin and the other Generals started heading into the aircraft, Nicholas swiftly followed. Once they were all seated and strapped in the aircraft began shuddering as it lifted off.

Konstantin leaned over and shouted "You should hold on your highness these things go quite fast!"

Nicholas didn't get a chance to reply, as the whooshing sound of the rotors was replaced by a loud roaring that sounded like a rocket. He was jolted back into his seat as the aircraft sped towards Sevastopol, this thing went really fast he summarised it was one of the newest model of flying machine that used eezo engines, the idea had been stolen from the British aircraft that used the same method.

One of the generals sitting to the left of Nicholas leaned over and spoke, although he had to shout over the roar of the engine.

"Are you alright your highness? These new aircraft do go quite fast."

Nicholas waved the man off, and said he was fine although truth be told he felt quite sick.

Twenty minutes later the aircraft began slowing down as it had reached Sevastopol naval base, the craft gentle hit the ground on a small airstrip that housed several other such craft. The ramp at the back of the aircraft lowered, the airstrip was illuminated by flood lights. On either side of the ramp rows of soldiers stood to attention and saluted as the Tsar walked down the ramp the airstrip was frantic with activity as soldiers and vehicles moved to and fro.

Nicholas nodded to his troops and followed Konstantin as he headed towards the main building of the base. As they walked Nicholas could just make out the masts of the battleships in the harbour, and he saw several aircraft fly overhead in a v formation.

They finally made it to the large building and Nicholas was taken to a large briefing room that had a map of the world being projected onto the back wall. There was also a single large table with around a dozen people sitting at it, several of them the Tsar recognized there were various generals, admirals as well as political, and scientific advisors, and all seemed to be engaged in frantic conversation until they noticed the Tsar.

The whole room rose from their seats for the Tsar as he took his seat at the head of the table. And the room was quite. Nicholas cleared his throat and spoke in a booming commanding voice.

"So what's the situation?"

A man in a black suit held up a small black remote and pressed a button which changed the image being projected. The image changed into a colour photo of a large silver shape suspended against a background of stars, the thing resembled a Martian cylinder, but it wasn't quite the same shape.

"So what is it, a cylinder?" One of the generals further down the table asked.

The man in the black suit shook his head, and spoke.

"Around two hours ago astronomers at the Pulkovo Observatory just outside of St Petersburg observed this object leave Martian orbit. It is too big to be a cylinder, we have guessed it to be approximately one and a half to two kilometres long, and it is slowing down our best guess is that it is a Martian space vessel."

"Good God" Nicholas was taken aback two kilometres long?

"When will it arrive?" An Admiral further down the table asked.

"We guess it will hit in about two to three hours."

"Any idea where?" Nicholas asked.

"Yes we have a general area your highness; if it stays on its current course we estimate it will hit this area." The man held up the remote and the image changed again. It was a map of the eastern hemisphere, but there was a large red circle drawn around most of central Russia, north western Chia, the eastern Ottoman empire and the very northern tip of the Raj.

"That's quite a large area." The Tsar said.

"Indeed it is your majesty, but our estimations shall be more precise the closer it gets."

"Very well mobilize the military, and warn the rest of the world." The Tsar would need British and Ottoman troops to fight the Martians, while Russia was very powerful militarily it would need assistance fighting the technology superior Martians, and while the technological gap was being slowly closed the Martians were still far superior.

"Your majesty the British and Turks already know, they are mobilizing troops as we speak." Pasha the Tsars forging minister said.

The Tsar nodded and spoke "very well then I suppose we have nothing to do, but prepare. What are our possible responses?"

**Russian Empire, Siberia, over the skies of Tunguska, 7:00am, 30 June 1908.**

Captain Artyom Glazkov was scarred as all hell as he observed the Siberian landscape rushing past below him. He and his company had been mobilised in the early hours of the morning, they were meant to scout out the area where a Martian ship was meant to be landing. They had mounted up their stork transport aircraft, and left Irkutsk around an hour ago. Of course the ship hadn't landed peasants and tribal's in southern Siberia had reported seeing a blazing ball of fire streak across the sky, It appeared the Martian ship had crash landed.

The handheld radio he carried buzzed to life and the voice of major general Slava Zharkov was heard over the handheld.

"Captain Glazkov are you in view of the crash site?"

Artyom cleared his throat before replying, he cupped his mouth with his free hand and shouted so as to be heard over the roar of the engines of the aircraft.

"No, not yet sir, but we should be in view soon."

"Good, remember your orders captain, don't engage and keep your dist…an…to…"

The radio was overwhelmed by static for a moment before gibberish started filling the airwaves, it sounded like a cross between a lizard and a cat screeching. He tried in vain to get back in touch with general Zharkov, but it was in vain and the static persisted.

Cursing he unbuckled himself from his seat, and started walking towards the cockpit of the aircraft, he almost tripped over the feet of his men several times it would be damn embarrassing if he died from being tripped.

He made it to the cockpit and tapped the pilot on the shoulder.

"Can I use your radio?"

The pilot removed a single hand from the flight stick, and picked up the radio then passed it to Artyom. The cord of the radio was just able to stretch to Artyom, but he was dismayed to find the aircraft's radio had the same static and screeching sound.

"Sir look eleven o clock."

Artyom looked to where the pilot was pointing, and saw massive columns of smoke climbing into the sky.

"Take us over there." Artyom ordered. The aircraft Artyom was in headed towards the smoke columns and the four other aircraft of the formation headed towards the smoke.

Five minutes later Artyom was surveying a burned out wasteland. Every tree for…Well as far as he could see seemed to have been blown over, and the ground its self was scorched black.

"Good God." Artyom couldn't quite fathom the amount of devastation he was seeing, he thanked God this hadn't hit a populated area, millions could have died. As he was surveying the scorched wasteland he spotted a large burning metal tube that was in the middle of a small valley. It resembled the photos of Martian cylinders he had seen, but it was far larger.

"Pilot take us over there." Artyom ordered the pilot towards the crash site.

There seemed to be no activity around the crash site, and the ship was riddled with large gaping holes which smoke and fire were pouring out of.

"I doubt anything survived that captain, but it's amazing that thing is still in one piece. Should I take us closer?"

Artyom considered the pilots question, and upon double checking there was no activity at the crash site nodded.

The aircraft started descending until it was only around twenty meters above the ground, and upon seeing for sure there was no movement at the crash site made up his mind to land. If Russia could salvage the technology from this ship…Well it would put Russia ahead in the technology and arms race.

"Pilot set us down."

The pilot looked at him, and cocked his head of course Artyom couldn't see his emotions behind the pilot's flight helmet. "Are you sure sir?"

"Yes set us down."

The pilot shrugged, and complied. The aircraft slowly started to touch down, and shook as it made contact with the ground. Artyom turned around, and ordered his men out of the aircraft. They quickly filed out and their boots kicked up the ash on the ground. Artyom drew his pistol and was the last one out. Several of his men were coughing from breathing in the floating ashes, and Artyom's own lungs were irritated by the ashes.

Five minutes later after the men in the other aircraft had disembarked Artyom, and his company headed towards the burning Martian ship. After passing over a small rise the full sight of the burning ship came into view, Artyom had to admit it was quite a sight. As he and his company approached with weapons drawn there was a small explosion on the side of the ship, the explosion created a small hole on the side of the ship. Artyom was horrified as what appeared to be a group of injured Martians emerged from the hole.

The Martians stood around two meters in height, and were humanoid in appearance the most major difference being the height and the body proportions. Their heads were quite large, and had two tentacles on either side of their mouths. Their skin had the texture akin to a Rhino, and they wore clothes of bright striking colours. Atryom noticed there were several very small Martians cowering behind the larger ones; he guessed them to be children.

Initially neither side reacted the Russians just stood there weapons raised, and the Martians simply stood still watching. After about two minutes of neither side reacting one of the tallest Martians stepped forward with both hands held up, wait was it trying to surrender?

The creature started to speak gibberish a light on it's helmet flickered as it did so. Was it trying to talk to them? Artyom would never find out however as at that moment a young Corporal lifted up his rifle, and fired. At that moment the Martians the Corporal had fired at, became engulfed in a purple aura. and shot what looked like a ball of energy at the Russia soldier. The Corporal who had fired was completely disintegrated by the ball of energy.

Before Artyom could even give the order the entire company had panicked and started firing with both conventional bullets and hand held heat rays. In a matter of moments most of the Martians were dead a few tried to flee back into the ship, but were swiftly cut down. However a single Martian surrounded in a purple aura and with one of the smaller Martians clinging to its leg remained.

Artyom raised his own pistol and fired at the surviving Martian but his bullets simply bounced off, and the rest of his men who were using conventional rifles couldn't seem to get past the purple aura either. The Martian seemed to scream and fired another large ball of purple energy at a trio of riflemen; the riflemen were completely obliterated. One of the men who was using a heat ray fired, and a red lance of energy shot towards the Martian completely shot through its shield, and hit the creature right in the chest.

The men cheered as the Martian fell to the floor, but this left the single surviving creature that Artyom would guess to be a Martian child. The thing seemed frozen in place, and one of Artyom's men raised his rifle to finish it off, and lord knows the Martians showed no mercy to Russia children during the invasion…But a live Martian would be invaluable to science.

"Hold your fire." Artyom ordered.

"But…But sir it's a alien."

"So we have never had the chance to study a live one, capture it."

The man who had wanted to shoot the alien nodded and walked over to it and grabbed the creature by the collar of its clothing.

"Which one of you has the camera?" Artyom asked, they need to film this momentous occasion.

A young tartar sergeant stepped forward. "I do sir, shall I start filming?"

Artyom nodded and smirked they would be heroes, seizing this ship for Russia and the Tsar.

"Alright men come on lets search this ship, and make sure we kill any surviving aliens."

The men cheered, and started filing into the hole the Martians had emerged from.

**Low Lunar orbit, aboard the HMS Albion, May 12****th**** 1926.**

"Roger mission control we are starting our descent, our shields are green, and our landing should be smooth." Royal air force group captain Andrew Hastings was ecstatic he would be the first man to step foot on a celestial body that wasn't Earth.

"Reading you loud and clear Albion, the Empire's eyes are all on you lads."

Andrew chuckled as the posh sounding women at control replied to him.

"Tell me again control how far ahead are we of the Americans and Russian Lunar missions?"

"By around an hour for the Americans, and forty five minutes for the Russians."

"Bloody hell this was a close race. Hey Kumar, Alan did you hear that?" Hasting asked his two fellow astronauts over his helmets radio.

"I heard it. Bloody hell the Tsarina is going to be miffed, didn't she promise her people that Russian feet would be the first on the moon?" Alan asked, he was the one piloting the craft as it started descending towards the moon's surface.

"That she did my friend, and the French and German missions are launching next month so it will get crowded up here soon." The Punjabi astronaut Kumar said while chuckling.

"Yeah the yanks and Russians may have been the first into space, but that underestimated good old British engineering." Alan could almost feel like he could touch the Lunar surface as he saw on the exterior cameras how close they were.

"Okay control, mass effect fields are active…And we have touchdown." Alan said while smiling from ear to ear.

"We are reading you Albion, and the live broadcast will start as soon as you are ready."

"Rodger that control, give us a moment to prepare and we shall step quickly pop outside as it were." Andrews's terrible joke raised a chuckle from the other two men, and once they were all fully suited up, and Kumar had grabbed the camera they stepped into the airlock.

Each of their space suits was white as a wedding dress, apart from the orange visor, and the large union flag on their left shoulder. Kumar had the camera that would beam a live broadcast back to the Empire while Alan had camera that would take photos still photos, and Andrew well…Andrew had something extra special.

"Alright control we are starting the recording in three, two, and one," and with that Alan took a deep breath, and pressed his hand against the button that would open the outer airlock doors. The airlock opened with a hiss, and the grey Lunar landscape was revealed. Just for this sight alone, Andrew felt the years of training had been justified.

As the three of them stepped out onto the Lunar surface Andrew was only dimly aware of Alan saying how this was a great leap for mankind, and a giant leap for the Empire. Andrew however was focused on only one thing for in his hands he held a flag.

Once Alan had stopped speaking Kumar jumped over to stand in front of Andrew, Andrew depolarised his visor, and looked directly at the Camera smiling as he performed his task. He gentle unfurled the flag and stuck the pole into the Lunar surface and stood back to admire the Union flag that was now planted on the Lunar surface.

Andrew took a step back and saluted.

"In the name of his majesty King Richard IV, I do hereby claim this territory for the British Empire. God save the King!"

October 1907- Ottoman Empire defeated, Egypt is restored as a British protectorate, and the Ottomans lose all their European holdings to the various Balkan nations. Greece takes back Constantinople but cedes a portion of the city to Russia for use as a naval base for all time.

1908- Tunguska incident. Martian ship heading to attack Earth suffers damage in atmosphere and crashes in Tunguska. Russia keep the international community from analysing the wreckage, this sends the world into up roar.

1909- Russia still refuses to allow the international community to analyse the wreckage. However after threats of crippling economic sanctions Russia gives in.

1910- France creates a free trade area within its Empire, and the Dutch follow suite.

USA and Japan become locked in a naval arms race.

An international body is set up to observe Mars for any further signs of invasion or activity.

1911- Violence between Hindu's and Muslims in India intensifies, but it is swiftly put down by British colonial forces.

Rhodesia becomes a Dominion and receives seats at the Imperial parliament.

1912- RMS Titanic completes her maiden voyage.

Spain and Portugal as well as their colonies increase their close links by signing a military alliance treaty.

January 1913 - Workers protesting for higher wages in Vienna are brutally cut down by Astro-Hungarian cavalry. Two hundred people are killed including a up and coming artist by the name of Adolf Hitler.

February 1913- What started as a single riot in Vienna becomes something more, protests against the government break out across the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and most of these are brutally crushed by troops.

March 1913- Riots and protests break out in every major city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, what began as protests for higher wages turns into full blown revolution. A communist revolt breaks out in Budapest and declares a general revolution.

The Austro-Hungarian Emperor is killed when a regiment of red guards destroy a train he is traveling on. His heir a young woman is crowned in a hasty coronation, the new Empress begs the German Kaiser to send troops. The Kaiser is reluctant at first, but swiftly agrees when a troop of red guards cross into Germany and attempts to incite a communist revolt in Germany.

Three full German army divisions equipped with the latest technological advancements, and supported by armour and air power. Cross into Austria-Hungary, and working with the loyal troops of the Empire crush the communist revolt within two months. All communist leaders are executed, and German troops dig in across Austria-Hungary.

The rest of the world reacts to this in horror, a powerful European power nearly falling to Communism was unheard of. While the British view this move with favour as the British were allied with Germany at the time, both France, Russia and Italy viewed it as a German land grab.

1914- American Daniel Evans breaks the sound barrier in a new American fighter plane.

Russian and Japan have a minor border skirmish along the Manchurian-Korean border; due to Spanish meditation war is averted.

France begins testing of a long range rocket designed to destroy capital ships. The British alarmed that their vast battleship fleet will be rendered useless due to this invention, begin testing a prototype shield reverse engineered from the Martians, and also began looking into rockets of their own.

1915- Tension between the United States and Japan escalates when concludes an alliance with the British and German Empires. The US feeling diplomatically isolated in the Pacific seeks allies, and find willing ones in the French and Russian Empires.

1916- A small rising in southern Ireland is put down by elements of the British army; the issue of Irish home rule is brought to the fore front of British politics. Some Irish politicians want Ireland to become a dominion while others seek complete independence. Westminster makes it perfectly clear they will never allow an Ireland outside of the Empire, but MP's would be willing to allow Ireland dominion status. India too begins to ask for a seat at the Imperial parliament, but the issue is that India is so large they would dominate the parliament with the sheer amount of MP's. A compromise is reached India will be allowed dominion status in a few years' time if they agree to be split up into several different dominions, India rulers agree to Westminster's terms.

A referendum in the Dominion of Newfoundland on joining the Dominion of Canada is soundly defeated.

1917- Russia begins preparations to send a manmade satellite into orbit within the next two years.

1918- The United States begins preparations to send a man into orbit within the next three years.

Engineers in Australia find a method to produce armour to use on ships and vehicles to protect against energy weapons.

King Arthur dies the Empire is in mourning, and leaves his throne to his seventeen year old son Richard, Richard and the Tsar's daughter Anastasia are quite close leading to some to question the kings loyalty's.

1919- Russian Empire sends a satellite into orbit, and the first man made images from space are sent back to Earth.

1920- America sends Fredrick Mason into space he orbits the Earth four times before landing in the Pacific Ocean.

Joint British and German researchers studying Martian technology come across a startling discovery, a theoretical way to split the atom, and create nuclear fusion. Upon seeing the results that could be gained from this nuclear fusion both Germany and Britain fund a further study to see how it could be used as a power source.

1921- Space race intensifies as Britain, Germany and France throw their hat into the ring, and all launch satellites in the same year.

Massive leaps in technology are witnessed across the entire planet, and with humans taking their first steps into space, people start to joke about humanity repaying the Martians for their visit.

Engineers in Germany mange to get a Martian mass effect shield system working.

1922- Britain after a dozen successful unmanned and manned launches promises to plant the Union flag on the surface of the moon by decade's end. Both the Americans and Russians reply in kind and begin their race to the moon.

1923- A successful nuclear fusion reaction is achieved in a reactor in central Australia.

Tsar Nicholas dies without a son, both of his eldest daughters refuse the crown, and his daughter Maria becomes Tsarina of Russia.

King Richard IV and Grand Duchess Anastasia ask for the Tsarinas permission to marry she gives it, and relations between the British Empire and Russia somewhat become better.

France manages a Fusion reaction of its own, and the thought of using it as a weapon is thought about but swiftly abandoned as only a madman would create a weapon of such power.

1924- Russia and America launch Lunar satellites. This is a major embarrassment for Britain who redoubles her efforts.

Russian scientists have some minor breakthroughs in decoding the Martian language, due to a Martian that was captured at Tunguska.

1925- Four British satellites are launched into orbit around the moon, and the Empire celebrates, but all of the major players in the space race have plans to launch next year.

1926-Britain launches the spaceship HMS Albion from a spaceport in central India, and both the Russian and American missions are launched within hours of each other.

Britain wins the race to the moon by an hour, and is followed by the Russians then the Americans. The press in all three countries joke that the first to Mars will be the deciding round.

Well please let me know what you guys think of this, I finished this at 2:00 am so I'm off to bed now.

Also I was researching Nicholas II and his family while writing this chapter, and I just have to say that is one depressing story.


	3. Mars

**Mars.**

**Low Mars orbit, southern Martian hemisphere, July 1st 1998.**

Lieutenant Colonel Fredrick Shepard of the Royal Marines was feeling slightly anxious as the shuttle entered Mars's atmosphere, it was not a smooth decent as the shuttle shook. He wished this damn thing had windows, he hated being blind to the outside. The shuttles passenger section was quite open with a dozen seats lining the edges of each of the sides, and this was because it was a military landing ship technically not a shuttle, and so was designed to carry tanks and walkers down onto the planet. Today however it was full of Royal marines in heavy armour. The Royal marines were all chatting amongst themselves casually and seemed quite relaxed, Fredrick was glad the Marines were here, especially if what the message from the Royal society of Mars about what they uncovered on this planet was true.

He looked to the seats that were directly across from him, on these seats sat Fredrick's personal escort five royal marine commandos. Unlike the other marines whose visors were clear and wore rust coloured uniforms these five men's armour was as black as night, and their helmets visors were orange. There were two visible marking on their armour, one was a small on their right paludron, and under that were the bars that designated their rank.

These men were veterans having fought against Russia in the brief Martian crisis, and had seen heavy combat, and the worst part was that all the deaths were in vain as the peace deal was for a status quo. Fredrick had been stationed in Eastern Persia at the time, and that had been bloody hard going. Although the majority of fighting took place on Mars there had been large skirmishes between British and Russian forces in Persia, and that had been hell for Fredrick.

The Co-Pilot's voice came over the shuttle's PA system, bringing Fredrick back down to reality, and he was glad as he hated dwelling on his time in Persia.

"We will be landing at Livingstone station shortly oh, and lieutenant Colonel if you want to see Mars from the air now is the best time, it's a brilliant sight."

Fredrick decided to accept the offer, as he never got tired of seeing the red planet from the air there was something eerie about it, something about the planet itself was…Off he couldn't really explain it. He made his way to the front of the shuttle where the cockpit was located, and the door to the cockpit slid open.

The sight that he could see through the windows took his breath away, Mars was beautiful this is what Andrew Scarlet must have felt when he first touched down on the Red planet. The vastness of Olympus Mons could be seen in the distance; of course all the land he could see now was currently unclaimed, although the British, Dutch and German sectors met near here, but he didn't know where exactly.

"Quite a sight isn't it sir?" The pilot cheerfully said.

"I agree it is quite amazing." Fredrick said while shielding his eyes from the sun.

After he had stopped gawking at the view Fredrick glanced at his watch, and saw it was nine am Martian time.

"How long until we touch down?" Fredrick asked.

The pilot glanced at a dial to his left, and said "about ten minute's sir".

Fredrick said his thanks, and with that left the cockpit to go and re-join the men. He sat down in the same seat he had been in a few minutes ago, and took out his data pad which was a type of electronic mobile device. Fredrick bought up the latest Daily Telegraph on the device.

For the remaining ten minutes of the flight Fredrick read an article on a new type of warship being built at Victoria station back in Earth orbit. The Admiralty was calling it the HMS Dreadnought of space, and this was meant to imply that it would revolutionise space combat as HMS Dreadnought had for surface combat. Fredrick was hopeful it could do what the Admiralty was hoping for, as at the moment the Yanks had the largest space borne fleet.

The shuttle touched down at Livingstone station, the station was built into the side of a Martian mountain range. The mountains that Livingstone was built into were riddled with mines, and tunnels. Not far from Livingstone was the civilian city of Port Scarlet, so named after the first Imperial citizen to set foot on Mars, of course the poor bugger had been beaten by the Yanks, Russians and Germans, but still.

Fredrick as protocol dictated double checked his armour for breaches, as did the platoon of Royal marines and his black clad body guards. Once everyone had checked their suits, the ramp at the back of the drop ship lowered. Fredrick was the first to step out, and was greeted by a light wind that was blowing the red Martian dust across the large landing pad; the pad itself was easily capable of holding a small freighter.

Standing at the edge of the landing pad in front of what looked like a large airlock was a man in khaki armour, the bars on his suit identified him as a Major in the army. The Major approached Fredrick, and offered his hand for a handshake, Fredrick took it.

"Hello Sir. It is good you are here, my name is Anish Dhurvasula," and even though his voice was distorted through the speakers of his helmet, Fredrick could tell the man had a strong Indian accent.

"Nice to meet you Major, shall we take this inside?" Fredrick asked.

The Major nodded to the large airlock. "Agreed, let us get out of this wind there is a storm not far off by the look of it."

Fredrick turned his head to look at the horizon where indeed there was a huge cloud of dust. Fredrick turned back to the Major who had already begun walking to the airlock. Fredrick gave orders to the marine's captain to follow the Major. The shuttle fired up its two large main boosters which were located at the back of the ship, and then the smaller secondary boosters that were located under the nose fired up and started slowly lifting off. The shuttle turned slowly to face Fredrick who was still standing on the edge of the landing pad.

Unlike the rest of his men his body guards were waiting just outside the airlock, he gave them a curt nod. In the centre of the airlock was a large painted on Union flag, the colours of the flag really stood out against the whitish metal of the airlock. The Major activated a control panel just to the side of the airlock, and quickly typed in a code. The giant metal bulkheads parted and slid open with a loud grinding sound, the bulkheads revealed another set of bulkheads. They had to wait five minutes for decontamination procedures first, and this was the part Fredrick hated.

Fredrick had now been on Mars for three hours, and in that time he had managed to grab a bite to eat in the officer's mess, and been able to have a shower in his newly given quarters. He was currently walking through the living quarter's section of the base, and he had some time to kill until the meeting with the senior scientists and military officials in about half an hour. The base was quite different to the cramped quarters of the war ships Fredrick was used to serving on, even though he had been to Mars several times this was his first visit to Livingstone city. The walls were coloured white a bit like some of the military hospitals Fredrick had spent time in over his decade of service to the Crown, but the walls here though had murals of forests painted on them here, and there Fredrick had asked one of the base personal earlier about this and he was told seeing green forests helped keep up morale when you were stuck in a red wasteland for months at a time.

For a large base the hallways and corridors seemed to be deserted Fredrick had only passed five people so far. He passed a mini doctors clinic judging by the sign and what he could see through the rectangle window that took up part of the wall, he decided to pop in and ask where the devil everyone was. He reached the door and just as he raised his hand to knock it slid open to reveal a woman with shoulder length brown hair, and wearing a blue nurse outfit. She seemed to be concentrating on a data pad just like the one Fredrick had. He was just about to open his mouth when she walked straight into him.

"Oh I'm so sorry, are you alright?" The women asked in a strong Irish accent.

"Oh it's quite alright Ms, and in fact I was hoping you could help me. I'm wondering where everyone is?"

"I think most people went to go see the Football match between the Navy and Army lads on the astro turf, and most of the troops here are off on an exercise with the Germans, and they won't be back until tomorrow.

"Wait you have a football pitch here?" Fredrick was quite surprised at this, and he had to ask.

She nodded. "Oh yes, and a rugby pitch. Quite a bit of fun to watch actually, and if you go now you might catch the end of the current match."

She pointed to a sign saying football pitch, "follow that, and you'll be fine. Now if you'll excuse me I'm off for a cup of tea."

She brushed past him and walked off; he looked at his watch he still had twenty minutes to kill so why not go and watch a bit of footie.

Nineteen minutes later he was standing looking out through a window near the meeting room. The match had been a close run thing with it being two all until the last sixty seconds when a young army corporal managed to head in a ball from a corner pass scoring a win for the army (much to the dismay of the naval personal).

He was now exactly on time for the meeting, the double door to the briefing room slid open as he approached revealing a largish square room with a large table in the middle; the roof's middle section had a pane of reinforced glass on the top so you could see the Martian sky. Around the table sat a couple of men and one woman. One of the men, and the women wore uniforms that identified them as members of the Royal society distinctive by the emblem of mars with a crown above it on their shoulders. At the head of the table sat an Admiral David Rhys, the Admiral pointed to a chair besides the Major that he met when he first landed. Fredrick nodded to him, and the Indian nodded back, and without the Helmet Fredrick could see he had a large handle bar moustache. They waited in silence for a few more people to arrive before starting the meeting. The Admiral rubbed his chin which had a small grey beard on it before speaking.

"The Admiralty and by extension me, have brought you all here today to discuss a find of potentially Earth shattering importance." The Admiral said in a New Zealand accent, and once he was finished picked up a small remote, and turned on a very large flat screen monitor that was hanging on the wall. The monitor showed what appeared to be a ground penetrating radar image. In the middle of the image there was an almost launch tube like empty space that went down for three kilometres, and hollow area three kilometres down, and it seemed too neat to be a cave.

The Admiral looked around the room his eyes met Fredrick for a fraction of a second then spoke again.

"Two weeks ago miners from Scarlet city were in the Nova Alba region near where our, and Germany's borders meet. They were up there looking for metals using ground penetrating radar, but what they found was something far more amazing. We believe they may have stumbled across a Martian city, and I don't need to tell you all how important a find like this would be."

The Admiral was right this was huge, and this is why they needed Fredrick and his Marines.

"I'm glad you're finally here Shepard, now we can finally make a move. Major Dhurvasula you will be under the command of lieutenant colonel Shepard for this operation."

The Major looked towards Fredrick and gave him a nod, Dhurvasula also flashed a brief smile before the Admiral continued speaking.

"Lieutenant Colonel Fredrick your orders are as follows, secure the site with the assistance of our, and the German troops already there. Try not to damage any of the technology there and once secure await the arrival of the boffins."

The Admiral gestured to the two Royal society members they both smiled the women who looked to be in her mid-thirties leaned over the table and shook each of the officers hands the man besides her stayed seated.

Fredrick was shocked, and had to ask "Sir why are we involving the Germans?"

The Admiral replied.

"Because Shepard we need their support, as it is we are on terrible terms with the Americans, French and Russians. We need the Germans on our side besides the world will find out eventually, and when they do it will be best our closest ally had first pick of the technology."

The Major put his hand up, and asked another question.

"If we are informing our allies then what about the Iberian Commonwealth, the Dutch, and the Japanese?"

"They shall be informed," the Admiral replied matter of factly.

The Admiral spoke up again, "the drop ships from the orbiting ship HMS Ajax will be transport you to the site, and once there you shall me meet up with the troops already there. Form up in the main hangers in ten minutes Dismissed gentlemen." And with that Fredrick and the others left to get geared up for their foray into the unknown.

Half an hour later a two shuttles carrying Shepards men were shooting through the skies on their way to the Nova Alba region. While they were heading there Shepard was listening to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata through his helmet, and he had to say he bloody loved classical music. As Shepard was listening to Moonlight Sonata he thought about the Martian ruins they were going to, were they still inhabited? Or was every Martian dead?

Humanity hadn't heard a peep from the Martians since Tunguska, and the last living Martian they had seen had been that one the Russia's took captive, but it died in the nineteen thirties. Even though humanity had studied the Martian language for decades in an attempt to understand the computers salvaged from the Tunguska ship, they were still no closer to understanding it. Their language was just so...Alien.

As Moonlight Sonata finished the shuttle reached its destination, and Fredrick was disappointed as he had Mozart coming up next on his playlist. The shuttle touched down on from what could see to be a hastily erected landing pad, and Fredrick stood up and checked his suit was still sealed as did the rest of his men. Once the checks were done the side doors of the shuttle opened revealing the Martian landscape, and what looked to be a very busy fire base of sorts.

There were dozens of what looked like to be hastily erected habitats as well as hundreds of people going to and fro, but what Shepard was most impressed by was what looked to be a massive German mining laser. Fredrick and his men disembarked the shuttle, and saw a man in khaki armour approaching.

"Lieutenant colonel Shepard it's a pleasure to meet you." The lead men in the group said while offering Shepard his hand. Shepard took it and smiled, although this man couldn't see that as his helmet covered his face, and left Fredrick's eyes visible.

"I'm Major Robert Mason please will you, and your men follow me." Fredrick along with the other thirty men of his platoon followed Mason further into the base, and as they walked Mason explained what the British and German troops in Nova Alba had done so far.

"We've been here for the past two weeks clearing everything from around the site, we managed to get through the initial thirty meters of crust with drills, but then we hit the metal underneath it. Let me tell you we tried everything to get those things open, our bloody drills broke, and then our explosives were infective. We finally had to get the Germans to drag one of their mining lasers out here, and even that seemed to struggle initially, but once we turned up the power the stuff melted like hot butter."

"What's this metal made of?" Fredrick asked puzzled, if it could resist all that it was bloody valuable, and at that moment Fredrick managed to place the man's accent as being that of a Welshmen.

Mason shrugged, "we don't know, but we have sent samples back to the lab at Livingstone city, and hopefully they will figure it out. Anyway this metal lid is around two miles in diameter, but we managed to carve out a hole large enough for a shuttle."

Mason paused as a massive truck carrying tons of Martian rock drove past, the sound of the engine drowning out Mason's voice.

"Anyway this hole goes down for about two and a half kilometres, and we did send drones down there to map and do you know what we found? A bloody intact ship."

Fredrick stopped walking.

"Excuse me Major, but did you say a ship, and what about any signs of life?"

Mason smirked and nodded in reply to Fredrick's question.

"Indeed we did sir. Not as big as the Tunguska one, this one was around four hundred meters, but still a fully intact Martian ship is sitting down there. As for signs of life we have seen none, we from what the drones have mapped there is nobody down there. Anyway we are here, behold."

Mason and Shepard stopped at the edge of what reminded Shepard of the open cast diamond mines he had seen in South Africa. It was absolutely massive.

"That's impressive," Is the only thing Shepard managed to say.

Mason chuckled.

"From what we can tell sir, the Martian caverns and tunnels underneath go on for several miles, so your team will be busy mapping it. Anyway let's get to it, your shuttle will take you guys down."

Fredrick's nodded, although he had to admit descending into the dark abandoned alien ruin wasn't that appealing to him.

Twenty minutes later Fredrick, and his platoon were packed into two shuttles that were slowly descending into the almost pitch black Martian ruin. As they hit two kilometres depth the shuttles turned on their floodlights, and Shepard standing in the cockpit looking out saw what they illuminated. It was indeed a ship although it looked very degraded; there were metal panels and bits, and pieces hanging off of it. Fredrick thought it looked like it had been stripped for parts.

Once the first and second shuttle had landed Fredrick ordered everyone out. The Royal Marines fanned out, Fredrick made sure everyone's night vision was working before they proceeded. They started to go in the direction the drone had already mapped a bit of so they wouldn't be completely lost, and as they headed through the dust covered metallic corridors Fredrick was aware of just how quite it was. After about five minutes of walking they came to the end of the drones mapped area, and that end was a sealed door.

They tried opening it, but it appeared to require power to work and since there was none they were out of luck. Fredrick ordered one of his men to use his heat ray on the door, and after about five meters the marine had cut a small opening through the door, and it was large enough for his men to get through if they crouched. Shepard was the first through followed by Major Dhurvasula, and then the rest of his men one by one. They emerged into a large corridor that reminded Shepard somewhat of a ships corridor; the whole place was covered in dust, and looked like it hadn't been touched for years.

Fredrick took his first step forward and felt his boots go crunch he looked down, and was horrified to see a dead half mummified Martian. Now that Fredrick looked he saw dozens of corpses on the floor, and as he looked at the door he had just come through there appeared to be scratch marks all over the damn thing.

What happened here?

**Alpha Centauri A, In orbit around planet of Nova Terra, Heavy cruiser HMS Vanguard, January 2040.**

Captain Daniel Savage was bored out of his bloody brain. When he had been offered the chance to be posted to the extra solar colonies he jumped at it, and he thought anything was better than just sitting in lunar orbit staring daggers at the Russians all day. How wrong he was, all he did here was sit on his arse as the only other nations on this planet were the Netherlands and the Reich.

Well at least that naval exercise with the Reich was coming up soon, that would distract from his boredom. Although he was thankful for one thing the pay for this posting was quite a bit, and he could use that to take his family on holiday next time he had shore leave.

Still next time he hope he could be posted beyond the relay, although no human colonies had been founded beyond the opened relay, ships of all nations were still exploring the newly opened up area of space.

Standing up from his desk Daniel walked over to his window, and hit the shutter. The armoured sheet pulled back to reveal the stunning view of Nova Terra. The lights of Nova Terra's small cities could be seen from orbit, and Daniel could just make out the light from the vast element zero mining complex's from here, it was a little wonder this planet produced the most biotics of any human world. Looking away from the planet Daniel shielded his eyes as he looked as the two other stars of the Alpha Centauri, well he supposed it wasn't so bad the view was nice after all.

1920's- Initial human exploration into space. After an early British lead the Americans start to push ahead.

1930's- Rapid technological developments, and further development of space, Helium three proves to be a potent power source.

1940- Emergence of human biotics.

1941- Launch of first space station the USS Liberty, the Liberty allows the United states to push far ahead in the space race.

1943- Russia launches its own station

1944- The British Empire launches the Victoria station.

1948- Germany and France both launch space stations of their own.

1949- Dutch, Spanish and Ottoman Lunar missions.

1950s- Helium three starts being mined from the moon in small quantities.

Austria and Germany formally unite into the Greater German Reich. The French, and Russians are outraged and want to act but the United States won't support them, and Britain and Japan support Germany.

1954- Spain Portugal and the majority of South America (with the exception of Venezuela) sign the Commonwealth treaty, and the Iberian Commonwealth is born. The Commonwealth is a economic and political union of Spanish and Portuguese speaking states.

Venezuela collapses into civil war between Communists and nationalists. Germany heavily invests in supporting the nationalists, and sends a task force commanded by Field marshal Erwin Rommel. German forces quickly crush the Communists and install a puppet regime.

1960- Dozens of Mars missions from various nations show the Martian surface to be deserted.

1962- First steps on Mars are taken by American Joseph Evans. Russian and Germans missions follow in the same year.

1963- British Mars mission is a success; it is quickly followed by the French.

1963-70- Mining colonies on Lunar begin growing to fuel the massive demand for Helium three, and further missions to Mars are sent seeking signs of Martian life none is found.

The Iberian commonwealth establishes a small colony on the moon, along with the Ottomans.

The Netherlands is the first nation to mine a Asteroid in the asteroid belt, and although it is costly initially it proves to pull in a profit over a longer period of time.

Uprising in French Indochina, thousands of people are killed in the two year conflict, but the French military prevails after bombing rebel jungle hiding spots from orbit.

1980s- First recorded use of space craft fighting each other in history, as Iberian commonwealth spacecraft engage Ottoman craft in high lunar orbit with energy weapons and mass acelerators, but the battle is indecisive. Brief war occurs between Iberian commonwealth and Ottoman forces, and while the vast majority of fighting takes place on Earth, several engagements are recorded on the moon. Other nations watch this conflict with interest seeing how space war fare theory translates to fact. The war ends within three months in a Commonwealth victory, and the border between the Ottoman and Iberian colonies on the moon is redrawn in the Commonwealths favour.

Colonies on Mars grow as mining, and hunting for Martian ruins become very profitable.

China recovers from a decade's long economic depression, and begins playing catch up to the other powers. A ruthless young Emperor wants to restores Chinas place in the world. By end of the 1980's China has begun modernizing its outdated military and industry.

An idea is proposed by officials in Belgium of a European union, but this is laughed at by the powers of Europe.

Scandinavia following the Spanish model forms the Scandinavia union.

1990s-

Persia collapses into civil war between three factions, Communists, Islamists and Republicans. The Ottoman Empire funds the islamists faction while the British supply the Republicans. As Persia sits on top of the second largest element zero deposit in the world after Arizona. Russia forces move in and take the north, while British troops swing in from the east, and the Ottomans from the west.

Martian border war.

What begins as a dispute between Russian and British miners over rights to an metal deposit, quickly spirals out of control as both powers bring in military forces to enforce their claim. Initially battles are won by Russia, who quickly pushes deep into British territory, but Britain soon wins orbital dominance and they manage to push Russian back to pre-war borders. The fighting on Earth takes place along the Raj-Afghan border as well as Persia, where Russian and British armoured divisions battle it out.

The war soon ends when Russia threatens to call its allies in, and Britain does the same. Not wanting to cause a world war peace is meditated by neutral Switzerland, and the treaty of Zurich is signed.

Discovery on Mars of a massive underground Martian complex, after a very lengthy excavation, massive amounts of new technologies are discovered. It is also discovered a large majority of the Martians seemed to have died from starvation.

2000s- Martian language is finally cracked by the Russians with the aid of a highly advanced computer. With this discovery massive amounts of Martian data that was previously useless is now readable.

Joint German-Anglo engineers and scientist's mange to reverse engineer a damaged Martian FTL drive from a recovered Martian ship.

After almost a century of being an American protectorate Mexicans start to request statehood.

2010's- After numerous unmanned attempts a German ship is the first to test the FTL drive, it is a success and the ship jumps to the edge of the solar system, and back within four hours.

Massive efforts at mining the asteroid belt begin.

It is discovered from recovered Martian data that the Martians didn't originate on Mars, but came from beyond the solar system through a mass relay. It is discovered Charon is actually a mass relay. Rush to claim parts of Pluto occurs. Although no one activates the relay fearing what is beyond it.

The Cerberus society is founded in London.

Russians are the first humans in another solar system as Russian scouting ships find several habitable planets in the Alpha centauri system, a colonization rush occurs.

China begins mining the asteroid belt as well as taking land on Mars. Analysts predict China will become a super power.

2020s- Belgium due to raising nationalist sentiment is partitioned into Flemish and Wallonia zones, The Wallonia zone applies for union with France, while the Flemish zone becomes essentially a protectorate of the Netherlands. The Belgian Congo is brought by the Netherlands as the other colonial powers are too busy with space to care.

Mass effect relay is opened and unmanned probes sent through, and what they find is an empty system, further exploration expeditions are mounted.

Initial stages of research into the prospect of creating an artificial mind or intelligence.

2030's- Humanity is expanding in every direction, and a new golden age dawns, but only if the two major power blocs can stop from killing each other.

Now things start to get interesting, and also a hundred followers woo!

.


	4. Codex: War for Shanxi

Please review and tell me what you guys think of this chapter.

**Codex entry: War for Shanxi.**

On June 6th 2157 a collection of Chinese vessels comprised of four scientific ships, a cruiser and four frigates had departed from the Chinese colony on Shanxi. The reason for such a heavy escort was that in recent years tensions had risen so high between the super blocs (The two blocs being the British, German, Iberian and Japanese opposed to the Russians, Americans, French and China.) that it seemed likely war could break out any time.

The small Chinese fleet's mission was to activate a dormant mass relay before the Japanese colony on Shanxi did, the relay know as 314 was on the edge of known space. The Chinese fleet activated, and then passed through the relay. Much to their shock they encountered a Turian military patrol comprised of two cruisers and six frigates. Initially nothing happened, but then the Turians suddenly and without warning opened fire.

The first Turian salvo depleted the Chinese shields, and the Chinese cruiser Shanghai returned fire with its laser as well as mass accelerator weaponry. The energy weapons of the Chinese fleet ignored the Turians kinetic barriers, and ripped into their ships armour plating. The next Chinese salvo of mass accelerator fire ripped through the now unshielded Turians ships.

While the Chinese naval ships and the Turians exchanged salvos, the scientific vessels fled back through the relay. The Turian heavy cruiser managed to line up its main gun on the Shanghai, and fired. The Chinese shields already weak from the bug bites of the Turian frigates were unable to resist the salvo of the Turian heavy cruiser. The Chinese lost the Cruiser Shanghai when a round managed to penetrate its armour and hit the drive core. The Shanghai was completely obliterated and lost with all hands. The frigates of the Chinese fleet knowing that they were outmatched retreated back through the relay and headed back to Shanxi.

The Turians sent scouting forces through the relay the majority of probes that went through were destroyed but the Turians upon seeing the large Chinese and Japanese fleet massed in orbit around Shanxi (which included the dreadnaught Peking) commenced full scale mobilization.

The human reaction to the initial alien attack was one of horror, but one good thing came out of it. That good thing was that the looming spectre of a devastating interstellar war between the super powers disappeared overnight in response to the alien attack. In the Exodus cluster the massive amount of forces that had been massed to bring destruction to their fellow man, were now being turned against the alien threat.

However before the various nations of Earth had gathered a sufficient force to protect Shanxi from alien aggression, the Turians had already made their move. A large Turian task force comprised of four dreadnaughts, a half dozen heavy cruisers, dozens of cruisers including screening frigates, as well as enough transport vessels to take and hold Shanxi.

On June 8th 2157 the Turian task force passed through relay 314. The orbital battle was short, but intense at the end of it the Turians had taken large casualties including a single dreadnaught. While the human ships were generally better armoured and armed, they were nowhere near as fast as the Turian ships which could fly circles around the heavy Chinese and Japanese ships.

By the end of June 8th the Turian task force had almost completely annihilated the human forces, which had fallen back to an area of low Shanxi orbit covered by the large ground to space defence guns. With orbital dominance mostly secured The Turian ground forces deployed in mass to the planet, at least seven hundred thousand Turian troops were arrayed against the Chinese and Japanese forces on the planet numbering one hundred thousand.

The Turians used Blitzkrieg tactics against the human forces. The Japanese and Chinese garrison lacked armour and air support due to Turian orbital supremacy. The Turians exploited the advantage they had and took the majority of the world in a single day, and the only area of the planet that didn't fall to the Turians was the Japanese colony of New Okinawa which was defended by large ground to space mass accelerators. The Turians now having almost complete control of Shanxi began hammering the surviving Japanese and Chinese forces in New Okinawa. The Turians developed a measure of respect for the Japanese forces they were fighting as they never retreated, and would fight to the last man.

On July 2nd 2157 the largest human fleet in history entered the Shanxi system, the fleet comprised of the navies of the various human super powers and its purpose was to liberate Shanxi. Nine dreadnaughts and dozens upon dozens of heavy cruisers and hundreds of other ships made up the human coalitions fleet.

The battle in the orbit of Shanxi was devastating. The Alliance fleet engaged the Turians at 2:30 pm galactic standard time, the initial salvos destroyed dozens of ships on either side, but the initial battle had swung in the humans favour due to the energy weapons of the human ships slowly but surely the Turians began to lose ground.

The allied fleet managed to land about six hundred thousand troops around the foot hold of New Okinawa. One of the more famous battles of the initial landings was the victory of a joint US and Royal marine force against a much larger Turian army just outside the capital city of Shanxi, and although the British and Americans had been rivals for decades the troops stood together against the alien threat.

After the initial landings the Alliance began pushing out from New Okinawa, but met stiff resistance from dug in Turians, and although the battle in space was swinging in the allies favour orbital dominance was not yet achieved preventing a further advance and bogging the ground war down into a stalemate.

The situation in space was not much different, while the human vessels magnetic accelerator weapons packed more punch and could fire further they took much longer to reload then their Turian counterparts which could fire more rounds per minute. The Turians quickly learned however that closing in to 'knife fight ranges' led to heavy casualties, as the majority of human vessels were bristling with broadside weaponry. Turian ships were also more manoeuvrable than their human analogues, but while human ships tended to be slower they were very heavily armoured.

The dead lock in space continued for about a week with neither side gaining a clear advantage with the bulk of the two fleets never meeting in actual battle, but rather skirmishes. The Turians were losing more ships however, and had to start bringing in reinforcements from all over the Hierarchy, and this got the attention of the other two council races.

With the war now having entered its second month, the other two citadel council members stepped in forcing the Turians to come to terms, and the Turians accepted begrudgingly and began requesting peace from the humans.

Three months after much negotiating (and translating) on October 6th 2157 the treaty of Shanxi was signed it brought peace between the Turian hierarchy and humanity. The Hierarchy were to pay reparations in materials and coin to the various nations of man.

The treaty also set the stage for man's integration onto the galactic stage. Most Citadel species were very surprised that humanity was a divided race, as the Turians, Salarians and Asari had all united under a single government.

In 2160 several human nations became observer members of the citadel, and began integrating into the galactic economy although they remained independent of the council. After man became aware of the wider galaxy humanity expanded like never before. Dozens of worlds were claimed in the Traverse and the Verge much to the ire of the Batarians.

The Turians and the most powerful human Empires after the war initiated a massive dreadnaught building program, some people say the war for Shanxi was just round one of a much larger conflict that is currently brewing, and few can deny the ever escalating arms race between the Turians and Humanity.

In the aftermath of the wars end the Alliance was founded, the alliance is a multinational military force designed to protect humans of all nations from the alien threat, but all the Alliance gets is token lip service from human rulers and it has very limited power and funding.

In all the Turians lost twenty thousand men, to the humans thirty thousand.

Well let me know what you think, I didn't want to really describe the first contact war from a first person perspective, and I felt this would be the best way of doing it.


	5. Codex: The Human Turian Cold war

Just a little thing to add a bit more depth to this AU before I get around to introducing Shepard.

I will also write about what an observer nation of the citadel council is in a later chapter, and if any of you have any ideas for codex entries about a particular topic in this AU you'd like to see me write let me know.

**Codex entry: The Human Turian Cold war and the proxy wars in the Terminus.**

Ever since the end of the War for Shanxi the Hierarchy had been expanding its military and influence in the wider galaxy, to counter the perceived threat of a growing humanity.

After the Primarch of the Hierarchy was forced to resign in shame following the Turian defeat, a new young and more hard line Primarch named Exactor came into power. Exactor announced that the Hierarchy was doing away with the restrictive treaty of Farixen as in Exactors own words "it limited the ability of the Hierarchy to adequately defend citadel space from alien aggressors." The Hierarchy claimed that this increase in dreadnaught production was not aimed at anyone specifically, although it was obviously aimed to counter the growing power of humanity.

The Asari republics and Salarian union protested against this move by the Turians, but their protests were swiftly silenced when the Hierarchy threated to scale back its protection of Asari and Salarian colonies.

This aggressive move on the part of the Turians massively alarmed the human powers who were in direct competition with the Hierarchy for colonies in the Traverse and influence with the various alien nations in the Terminus. This massive increase in tension led to what became known as the first Traverse crisis in the mid twenty one sixties when a brief skirmish broke out between Anglo-German colonists and Turian settlers on a planet on the edge of the Nemean abyss. With neither side willing to give up a colony that would be the gateway to the eezo rich systems in the Nemean abyss the spectre of war loomed.

Under the banner of the Alliance humanity began mobilizing as did the Turians, the only thing that prevented all-out war was the meditation of the Asari and Salarians who had already established rich trade links with the human empires and did not wish their economy to be rocked by war. The human Turian tension never did dissipate and the cold war between humanity and the Turians shows no sign of ending soon.

In the early twenty one seventies the human empires having carved up the eastern Attican traverse between them, slowly began expanding into the Terminus. The Turian Hierarchy (which was now beginning to look more and more like an Empire) followed suit, and several weaker races were absorbed into the Hierarchy as client states.

The human Empires seeing the Turian expansion into what they saw as their territory started funding some of the Terminus empires directly opposed to the Hierarchy, and the Turians responded in kind. Thus a kind of Proxy war ensured with Human backed regimes fighting Turian backed ones and vice versa. One of the most bloody of these Proxy wars was between the British, German and American backed Erukkav Empire and the Turian Proxy of the United Ueglan autocracy. The Erukkav were a species that bore a passing resemblance to a feline-Lizard type creature while the Ueglan were a humanoid race of what resembled a scaled primate.

The Ueglan and Erukkav fought a brutal ten yearlong interstellar war between 2169 and 2179, the war would be keenly watched by both human and Turian eyes as some of the best weapons and equipment of humanity and the Turians squared off. One of the highlights of the war was when a German built Kaiser class dreadnaught operated by the Erukkav navy, engaged a Turian built Exactor class dreadnought of the Ueglan navy over the skies of the Ueglans home world the clash was won by the Kaiser class, but the German built ship suffered heavy damage.

Upon the wars conclusion the Erukkav had claimed victory but only by the skin of their teeth. Dozens of planets had been devastated and millions were dead, and ultimately the Erukkav Empire collapsed in a large scale civil war and their fate was to be divided into protectorate states of the British Empire, Greater German Reich and the United States of America respectively.

The Terminus system was vast but generally the smaller empires saw they could not survive alone and fell into one of two camps, those two camps being allied to one of the various human Empires or the Turians. Turian and humans competed for influence with the Terminus empires, effectively locked in an interstellar great game, mirroring that of the great game between Russian and Britain in the 19th century. This pace of the Terminus powers falling into one of two power blocks quickened, after a human coalition effectively smashed the Batarian Hegemony in the Verge war ending the Batarian influence in the terminus.

Regardless of the Tension over the Terminus, Human Turian relations started to improve with the signings of several agreements involving settling competing colonial claims as well as the intertwining web of alliances of the proxy states in the Terminus (this did not prevent the brewing cold war which continues to this day). However relations suffered several setbacks the first of which was the Verge war and the second event and the more major of the two was the Anglo-German subjugation of the Yahg.

In the year 2181 just a year after the Batarian defeat in the Verge war a small surveyor fleet from a joint Anglo-German company was scanning the Parnack system. They were delighted to discover that the planet Parnack the Yahg home world was literally floating on eezo and other rare elements. There was one more thing buried beneath a large mountain range on Parnacks largest landmass were ruins. The fleet reported strange readings coming from under these ruins, but what was most odd however were the similarity they bore to the ruins on Mars.

Word quickly spread including (much to Britain and Germany's annoyance) to the Turians, who quickly began amassing forces in their colonies that were nearest Parnack. Since Parnack lacked a relay it would take much longer for any Turian force to get to Parnack. Britain and Germany however had colonies which were in striking distance of Parnack.

Within forty eight hours of the ruins on Parnack being confirmed as being remarkably similar to the Martian ruins, a small joint Anglo-German task force had been assembled to subdue the planet. Having learned from the mistake of the councils first contact team, and knowing that the Yahg accepted the most powerful in their society the British and Germans conceived of a show of force to dominate the Yahg who had just began to use manned space flight.

On July 12th 2181 large Anglo-German fleet appeared in orbit over Parnack the humans began broadcasting demands of complete surrender to the Yahg nations. These demands were met with the launch of Yahg nuclear missiles, these were easily intercepted by the Anglo-German missile defences, and the silos they were launched from were subsequently destroyed by orbital weapons fire.

The Anglo-German force began landing ground troops directly on top of the Martian ruins, these landing while met with stiff resistance by the Yahg (who viewed the ruins as a sacred site), but were successful with the humans superior technology winning the day. In the Yahgs view however they had not lost yet, massive armies hurled themselves at the entrenched humans and were repelled each time. More and more Yahg started to accept the humans as the strongest and yielded. In fact there were reports of in mid battle Yahg troops seeing their fellows cut down by human energy weapons turning on their fellows.

Several orbital strikes on Yahg military installations and several large scale defeats at the hands of human forces on the ground later the Yahg conceded defeat. The most notable battle of the conflict was what became known as the battle of new Marathon which saw a force of six thousand British Royal Marines as well as four thousand German Marines including a force of around eight thousand Yahg auxiliaries facing a force of one hundred and twenty thousand Yahg. The battle was short and swift, the primitive Yahg air forces couldn't hope to compete with the human air force, and without air support the Yahg were devastated by crippling air strikes.

The humans did not make the mistake of asking instead they simply informed the Yahg that the British and Germans were occupying the Martian ruins which the Yahg accepted. The site was classified and is currently being worked on by hundreds of scientists from every nation.

The political fallout from this event was quite large as the Turians were furious with the way the British and German Empires had just swooped in without even consulting the Turians, the Turians quickly broke several trade agreements that had been signed with the British and Germans although beyond that there was little they could do officially...

**End of Codex entry.**


	6. Codex:The Verge war

Please tell me what you guys think. Oh and if anybody would like to be a beta that would be a great help.

**Codex entry: The Verge war.**

The Hegemony and the various human powers had been at odds since the beginning of humanity's emergence onto the wider galactic stage, due to their rapid colonization of the worlds in the Skyllian verge.

Due to this rapid human colonization of the Verge, the Hegemony appealed to the council (specifically the Turian Hierarchy) for support. The Turians wished to aid the Batarian's, but were blocked by the Salarians and Asari. who didn't wish to support the Hegemony due to the Hegemony's refusal to repatriate Asari and Salarians slaves.

Thus the Hegemony withdrew from citadel space in outrage, of course this played right into humanity's hands as the various human empires had been fearful of council intervention in any war with the Batarians, but with council intervention off the table human efforts to colonize the Verge became far more bold.

Tensions reached boiling point on February 12th 2180 when a small Batarian fleet expelled Dutch colonists from the planet of Van Rhijn and destroyed the Dutch colony. The Kingdom of the Netherlands mobilized, as did the other human empires due to the alliance treaty stating they must respond united to alien aggression.

The war got off to a bad start, when on February 17th the task force sent by the Netherlands to reclaim Van Rhijn was defeated by the smaller Batarian fleet; the main blow to Dutch pride was the loss of the Dreadnought Zr. Ms. Nederland.

In the early weeks of the war the Batarian's were able to control the flow of the fighting due to having more ships deployed in the Verge, while the humans had had the majority of their forces deployed to the Terminus guarding the border with Turian space.

In the second month of the war with the human seizure of relay 453, the Hegemony was cut off from its colonies in the Terminus systems, and due to the vastly superior human military might in the Terminus, Batarian forces in the Terminus began using hit and run raids against human colonies there. These hit and run raids continued for months, and human commanders were puzzled as to how the Batarian remnants in the Terminus kept supplied (there were rumours of Turian involvement but nothing was ever proven).

In the third month of the war the naval situation in the Verge tipped drastically in favour of the Human alliance with the battle of Antoht. Antoht was a large Batarian colony world and was one of their most populace worlds in the Verge, it was also home to some of the largest Helium three refinery's in the Hegemony. The taking of Antoht would severely affect the Batarian fleet and hopefully draw out the main Batarian fleets in open battle, since the war beginning the main bulk of the Batarian and Alliance fleets had not met in open combat.

The invasion of Antoht was the first time in history that a human force was led by a small Alliance fleet rather than a national one, and the Invasion as hoped brought the main Batarian fleet out into open battle. The battle initially went in the Batarians favour due to orbital weapons platforms being brought to bear on the human fleet, but eventually superior human technology won the day, and twenty percent of the Batarian was destroyed including the prides of their navy the two Dreadnoughts Targun and Karhsa.

After the battle of Antoht the main Batarian fleet retreated through the Khar'shan relay, and stayed in their home system for the rest of the war. After the battle of Antoht human fleets could move with impunity through Batarian territory in the Verge, striking Batarian targets at will.

After several more Batarian colony worlds fell to the advancing human forces, Hegemony forces resorted to extreme tactics. Nuclear devices were detonated on their own colony worlds to prevent human advances, and Batarian ground troops would fight to the death rather than surrender. In addition small Batarian strike fleets would attack human colonies in hit and run style raids, and after several instances of Batarian forces massacring human colonist's (the most well-known occurrence of this was Mindoir), human forces replied in kind. The most well-known incident of this human retaliation was the Torfan incident, Torfan was home to a small Batarian colony that was completely destroyed by troops of the French Troops Coloniales (Marines) in retaliation for Mindoir.

In late June of 2180 the Verge war began to draw to a close, the Hegemony had lost its colonies in the Terminus, and was in full retreat across the Verge, but the Hegemony had one last gamble. On June 15th 2180 a large Batarian fleet appeared over the British colony world of Elysium, Elysium was far from the front and only had a skeletal defence force thus was easy prey for the Batarian fleet.

The British had been taken completely by surprise as the Batarian force had bypassed the relays, and had been traveling for weeks via conventional FTL. The small Royal Navy force in orbit was helpless to fight off the Batarians due to the Batarian dreadnought Argun, and had to hold position over Elysiums capital city of Port Scott. Port Scott was equipped with ground to space guns which prevented the Batarians from gaining complete orbital dominance, thus the Batarians deployed large amounts of troops to the surface to take out the orbital defence guns to secure orbital dominance.

Port Scott was lightly defended with only one hundred Royal Marines assisted by four hundred troops of the Royal Highland regiment of Canada serving as a defence force. Both the Royal Marines and the Highlanders were severely undermanned due to having taken heavy losses against Batarian forces in Antoht, and both struggled to put up a desperate defence in the face of overwhelming Batarian numbers.

The British forces lacked ground side artillery and armour, but the Batarians had plenty allowing them to deal out crushing punishment against the British troops. The large Batarain force landed in the foothills outside of Port Scott out of the range of Port Scott's AA weapons, and began advancing towards the British colony. The British troops struggled to put up and hold a defensive line against the larger Batarian force. An hour into the battle the British left flank collapsed and the whole line threatened to give, and it would have if not for Captain (now Major and Victoria cross winner) John Shepard of the Royal Marine Corps.

Captain Shepard single handedly held the centre of the line against the brunt of the Batarian assault until reinforcements from the Highlanders arrived. Shepard's actions allowed the British troops to hold out until a large Anglo-German fleet led by the Dreadnoughts HMS New Zealand and SMS Kaiser Wilhelm IV arrived in the Elysium system.

The Batarian fleet after a brief skirmish swiftly retreated into FTL leaving their ground troops to their fate. This wasn't the end of the fighting however as the Batarian troops on the ground fought to the last man, and only thirty of the eight thousand Batarian troops were captured alive.

On June 20th the Hegemony sued for peace. The terms were harsh the Batarian's were stripped of most of their colonies in the Verge and were forced to pay massive reparations. After the war the Batarian Hegemony collapsed into chaos, the people rose up in popular revolt and the Batarian government was toppled.

However this popular revolt was much darker than it first appeared, it was led by a young Batarian soldier named Balak who was extremely Fascistic in nature. The old corrupt Batarian aristocracy was purged by Balak and something much darker was put in its place. Balak also ended slavery (but not of non-Batarian's) winning support for him from the lower classes. Balak received funding from the Turians who's relations with the Batarian's began to improve as they both felt threatened by the growing humanity.

After the war a permanent Alliance military force was set up, the various human nations would contribute small parts of their forces to the Alliance who would then use them to look after all human interests...in theory. In reality however the Alliance remained a largely toothless force unable to act without the consent of the great powers.


End file.
